Cosette
Euphrasie "Cosette" Fauchelevent is one of the main characters of the novel Les Misérables. She plays a big role in the story. Cosette is the illegitimate daughter of Fantine and Félix Tholomyès. From approximately the age of 3 to the age of 8, she is beaten and forced to be a drudge by the Thénardiers. After Fantine passes away, Jean Valjean buys her from the Thénardiers and adopts her. Nuns in a convent in Paris educate her. She later grows up to become very beautiful. She falls in love with Marius and marries him at the end of Les Misérables. She believes that crying is severely punished because in the song "Castle On A Cloud", 'crying at all is not allowed, not in my castle on a cloud'. She does not think that anyone of the 'hundred boys and girls' would disobey this rule, because they would be severely punished, so she thinks, by Madame Thénardier. Young Cosette As a child, Cosette suffers abuse from the Thenardiers. Her Mother, Fantine leaves her and give the Thenardiers money to look after her. What Fantine didn't know was that they mistreat her daughter and hide her letters for her. Cosette befriends the oldest son of the Thenardiers, Gavroche and the family's dog. At first, Éponine and Azelma are good to Cosette, but they become mean when they learned that she's going to be their skivvy.They are unkind to her, as well as teasing and ignoring her completely. While Fantine is in the hospital, Jean Valjean (by then known as Monsieur Madeleine) promised her to get and retrieve Cosette for her. But, Fantine dies before she sees her beloved daughter again. But Valjean is determined to find and adopt Cosette. On Christmas Eve, Cosette naively places her dirty shoe before the fireplace in expectation of receiving something from Father Christmas, though she knows that Father Christmas always ignores her. Mme. Thenardier commands her to clean the floor. At this moment in the musical, she sings "Castle On A Cloud". Éponine pushes Cosette out. Thénardier says good night to his daughter as the inn fills up for the evening. As she goes to the woods, to fetch a pail of water, Valjean see her. He helped her and accompanied her back in the inn. He sees how Eponine and Azelma are unkind to her, when they go to their Mother and point at Cosette playing with their doll. After seeing this, he leaves the inn for a while to buy a brand new expensive doll. Life after the Thénardiers Cosette is adopted from the Thenardiers by Jean Valjean after Fantine dies. In the musical, this is where the show flashes ahead ten years where Cosette and Eponine (the Thenardiers daughter) are now 18 years old. This is where Cosette meets Marius and they fall in love at first sight. She then sings about how she longs for information about her forgotten childhood. Marius (with the help of Eponine showing him where Cosette lives) then appears at the balcony of her house and they sing "A Heart Full of Love". Marius and Cosette share their first kiss, while an upset Eponine looks on. While Marius and Cosette are talking, Eponine intersects her father and his gang about to rob Cosette & Valjean's house. She screams to warn them, and Marius and Eponine run away. Cosette tells Valjean she saw three men outside the house. Valjean, assuming it was Javert come to arrest him, he tells Cosette they are to move across the sea the next day. Cosette goes to tell Marius that she is leaving, and he must decide wether to go with Cosette, his true love or stay and fight at the barricades with his friends and fight for a new world. ("One Day More"). END OF ACT ONE. Songs in the musical Act I *Castle On A Cloud (Young Cosette) *The Bargain/The Thénardier Waltz of Treachery (Young Cosette) *The Robbery/Javert's Intervention (silent) *Rue Plumet – In My Life *A Heart Full of Love *The Attack on Rue Plumet *One Day More Act II *Every Day *Valjean's Death *Do You Hear The People Sing? (Reprise) List of Portrayers Little Cosette *Jayne O'Mahony and Joanne Woodcock (Original London) *Donna Vivino (Original Broadway) *Isabelle Allen, Lois Ellington, Ashley Godlberg, Sarah Huttlestone (Current in London) *Erin Cearlock and Abbey Rose Gould (Current on the 25th Anniversary US Tour; also play Young Eponine) Grown Up Cosette *Rebecca Caine (Original London) *Judy Kuhn (Original Broadway) *Katie Hall (Cosette on the UK tour, and 25th Anniversary Concert at the O2) *Jennifer Latimer (2011-25th Anniversary US Tour) *Lauren Wiley (2012-25th Anniversary US Tour) *Lisa Anne Wood (London Company) *Samantha Dorsey (Current Cosette in the London Company) Gallery C2.jpg|Isabelle Allen as young Cosette C.jpg|Amanda Seyfriend as Cosette lesmisLisa.jpg|Lisa Anne Wood as Cosette with Craig Mather as Marius Category:Characters Category:Characters in the musical